GERMANY & CENTRAL EUROPE 1789 SOTZMANN OVERSIZE UNUSUAL ANTIQUE ORIGINAL MAP

Karte von Deutschland in XVI Blatt nach des H. O. C. Büsching Erdbeschreibung u. den besten Hülfsmitteln entworffen von D. F. Sotzmann ... Berlin 1789 in Verlag der K.C. As. Kunst und Buckhandlung.

Description: Striking and highly detailed fine unusual 1789 oversize copper engraved map of the German Empire. Covers Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Slovenoa, Croatia, Belgium, Luxembourg ans surrounding countries. The map is richly detailed with cities, towns, villages, rievers, lakes, reliefs and islands. A large devorative title cartoche, a scale bar, a topographic legend and a compass rose sdorn the map.

Date: 1789 ( dated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 117,3 x 97,8
 
Condition: Very strong and dark impression. Map dissected in 32 pieces and sticked on old original canvas on the reverse Map old original colored. Small foxing and browning. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images. 

Mapmakers: Daniel Friedrich Sotzmann (April 13, 1754 - August 3, 1840) was a German geographer, surveyor, draftsman, and commercial cartographer active in Berlin during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is considered the father of Berlin commercial cartography. Sotzmann was born in Spandau, the son of a pewterer. He studied engineering in Spandau and taught himself surveying. From 1772 – 1773 he worked as a draftsman, making maps under the direction of the cartographer Carl Ludwig Oesfeld (1741 - 1804). Afterwards he became a civilian conductor at the Kgl. Immediate Construction Commission in Potsdam, a position which he held until 1778. In 1778 he took a position in Berlin as an official in the General Tobacco Administration under Minister Count von der Schulenburg-Kehnert. Around this time, he mastered engraving and in 1783 issued his first maps, among them a plan of Gdansk and an early map of Post-Revolutionary War United States. This began an intense period of map publishing. In 1786, at 32, he joined the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences, succeeding Johann Christoph Rhode as the that organization's official geographer. He made his first globe in 1791 as a counterpart to Johann Elert Bode's (1747 - 1826) famous celestial globe. He issued his first atlas in 1795-96. Later he took a position with the Royal Prussian Statistical Bureau and after 1816, then Prussian State Survey. Like many engravers of the period, his eyesight began to go bad, forcing him to retire by 1825. In all, Sotzmann was one of the most important German cartographers in his time . He developed trend-setting representations for small-scale cartography. Through Sotzmann's connections to state and scientific agencies, his publications in terms of reliability, wealth of information, and accuracy surpassed all other contemporary Prussia publications. In addition, he produced several seminal cartographic works focusing on the Americas and in particular the United States. Sotzmann was survived by a son, Johann Daniel Ferdinand and daughter, Johanna Philippine. He died of old age in 1840.
 
Anton Friedrich Büsching (27 September 1724 – 28 May 1793) was a German geographer, historian, educator and theologian. His Erdbeschreibung ("Earth description") was the first geographical work of any scientific merit. He also did significant work on behalf of education.
 
Johann Wilhelm Meil ​​(born October 23 , 1733 in Altenburg; died February 2, 1805 in Berlin) was a German painter, engraver, draftsman, etcher, and book illustrator. He was the son of the court sculptor Johann Christoph Meil ​​(1698–1734) and the younger brother of the draftsman and engraver Johann Heinrich Meil ​​(1729–1803).